Operators Benefits

Foreign-Trade Zones offer a variety of benefits, both to individual companies and the public as a whole.

These benefits include:

Duty savings: Deferral, Reduction, Elimination

Duties can be deferred, reduced and even eliminated depending on the type of business being conducted in the FTZ.
Duties are not paid until goods physically leave the FTZ site to enter the U.S. Customs stream of commerce.
Goods can remain in an FTZ site for an indefinite amount of time before entering the U.S. Customs territory.
Foreign and domestic-sourced merchandise can be co-mingled.

In lieu of paying MPF on every importation, FTZ users with weekly entry approval only pay MPF once per week (capped at $614.35 as of October 1, 2023), often resulting in significant annual fee reduction. Customs routinely approves weekly entry requests for FTZ operators.

Foreign status inventory may be transferred to another FTZ without being entered into the U.S. Commerce, meaning no MPF, taxes, or duties are paid when goods are transferred to another FTZ.
Duty can be delayed until the product is removed from the final zone.
Companies who implement FTZ procedures experience greater visibility and control over inventory transactions.

Companies can experience direct import delivery to the FTZ with pre-approval from U.S. Customs. This benefit avoids Customs delays which can facilitate a more efficient flow of goods in and out of the U.S
Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Transshipment – Many FTAs include provisions that allow originating merchandise to transit to a 3rd country, provided that the transshipped merchandise remains “under customs control.” U.S. FTZs generally satisfy this “under customs control” condition for eligible merchandise transiting the U.S., thus preserving FTA duty benefits through the supply chain.

When merchandise is ready for export, the need to apply for duty drawback on import fees previously collected is eliminated.